Colton: Immigration bill will send U.S. population soaring

May 18, 2013

Written by

Glen Colton

From this perspective

Have you driven or flown around our state or country recently? Does it seem increasingly crowded, overdeveloped, polluted and less livable?

It should. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the nation has added 34.5 million people since 2000. Most of the country’s population growth since 1970 has been due to immigration.

The U.S., with 315 million people, is the third most-populous country in the world. And according to the World Resources, the U.S. consumes 25 percent of the world’s resources with only 5 percent of its population.

It’s time we mature as a society and face the fact that continued population growth is crazy and irresponsible.

This topic is particularly relevant as the country discusses immigration reform. Native-born Americans are dying at a greater rate than they are having children, so our immigration policy is our de facto population policy. Current levels of legal immigration are about 1 million people per year and, according to the Pew Research Center, will be responsible for 82 percent of projected U.S. population growth through 2050.

Congressional “Gang of Eight” immigration reform would greatly increase legal immigration, resulting in an estimated 33 million additional permanent legal residents in the first 10 years. A recent Pulse Opinion poll shows 70 percent of respondents disagree that the nation needs more foreign workers.

At the projected higher level of immigration associated with the reform, we would see the addition of 135 million U.S. residents by 2050. If this happened, where would all these people live and what would be the impact on our communities?

We already face many challenges. Unemployment remains at 7.5 percent, and many workers face continued declining wages. Roughly half of recent college graduates are either unemployed or in jobs that don’t require a college degree, and 47 millionpeople live in poverty, according to government estimates.

We also face enormous water and resource issues, more crowding and congestion, loss of wildlife and farmland, increased greenhouse emissions, food insecurity and various other problems.

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University of Colorado Professor Emeritus Al Bartlett asks, “Can you think of any problem ... whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted or advanced by further increases in population, locally, nationally or globally?"

The answer would appear to be a resounding no.

The “Gang of Eight” proposal is bad policy for our country. It is costly — $6.3 trillion, according to a study by the Heritage Foundation — and will flood labor markets with tens of millions of new workers, pushing down wages and keeping unemployment high.

It is specifically designed to provide a never-ending supply of poorly-paid workers in order to enrich corporations while disempowering American citizens.

If we want to help our own unemployed workers, increase wages and help achieve real environmental sustainability, we need less legal immigration; 250,000 per year, not more. Call Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, and Rep. Jared Polis to tell them to reject the immigration proposal. Join Numbersusa.com.

Glen Colton is working toward making Fort Collins a sustainable community. He has 23 years of financial experience in high-tech companies. Contact him at (970) 225-2760 or glenc1@comcast.net.